Amazon reviews, especially the effusive ones, have always been suspect—you never know when a five-star review came from an employee, publicist, or marketing type. Slate describes the dishonest world of Amazon’s “Top 10 Reviewers,” where a small group of writers churn out purple-prosed blurbs and jacket-ready compliments at an astounding rate, sometimes for a fee. In turn, these reviewers are inundated with a sort of fame as well as free merchandise—mostly books in the past, but now electronics and other goods. Because good reviews sell more books, Amazon has no incentive to weed out the reviewers who have turned the system into a cottage industry. We suggest you disregard any review with a “Top 10 Reviewer” label on it.
reviews
If The Critic Doesn't Say Exactly What You Want, Change It
By 1.9.08
Speaking of blurbs and quote-whores, Gelf Magazine has compiled a list of the most egregiously misrepresented blurbs cherry-picked from various reviews last year.
Maxim Fires Peter Hammond, Movie Critic Shill Extraordinaire
By 1.8.08
As far as we are concerned, the function of a movie critic is to let you know (in as entertaining way), whether or not you should drop your hard earned cash to see a movie in a theater, if you should wait for cable, or if you should run screaming in the opposite direction.
How Do You Get The Most Out Of Online Reviews?
By 12.22.07
Products don’t advertise their drawbacks leaving shoppers to rely on online reviews as one of the only ways to determine a product’s true worth. Salon argues in an article heavy on fluff and light on content that reviews are just a meaningless muddle of questionable opinions. We disagree, but the article does raise one good question: how do you judge the value online reviews?
InfomercialScams.com Gets Sued Constantly
By 12.19.07
Over at the Consumer Law & Policy blog there is a post about the legal troubles of Justin Leonard, the owner of InfomercialScams.com, a site that posts unedited reviews of various infomercial products.
10 Magazine Gift Guides Reviewed & Ranked
By 12.13.07
You’re busy: you don’t have time to shop, or to read magazines, or to look at magazines for ideas to guide you when you go shopping, which you’re not going to do because you’re too busy. Luckily Slate has pre-digested the gift guides from ten magazines including Vogue, Maxim, Consumer Reports, and Gourmet, then barfed them up like an HTML mama bird for your shopping convenience.
Did CNET's Gamespot Fire Reviewer For Angering Advertisers?
By 11.30.07
So much for even the illusion of editorial independence in video game reviews. One of Gamespot’s editors and top reviewers was apparently fired this week after writing an unenthusiastic review for the game “Kane & Lynch,” which was being advertised heavily all over the Gamespot site, according to…
Find Out How It Sucks
By 11.27.07
HowItSucks.com is an interesting project that scrapes just the negative consumer electronic productive reviews from Amazon.com. Search by type or brand, and a red bar shows you how much it “sucks,” based on the negative feedback. Pass the mouse over the item and the popup lists the essential statement from three of the reviews. Could be an interesting tool for comparison shopping. Negative reviews are a good starting point if you’re trying to choose between similar products. You always need to be a critical reader, though. I bought an iPod sports band once and on the Apple site were all these people complaining about how it was too big and was falling off their arm. I then thought about how a number of Apple users are very picky and have twig-like bodies, whereas I have chunky biceps. I bought the sport-band and it fit perfectly.
A Casual Review Of Mint.com
By 11.26.07
Michelle Slatalla, the Erma Bombeck-David Pogue hybrid who writes casual articles about the Internet for the average person (she’s the mom who pestered her daughter on Facebook this past summer), has published a Chatty Cathy review of personal finance site Mint.com. Her verdict: it’s nice to not have to go to multiple sites; the aggregated information is a good feature; security worried her at first, but she’s okay now that she knows Mint is a read-only site and they don’t have her account numbers, just user names and passwords; and she has actually used the ads that Mint displays—not to open new lines of credit, but to negotiate lower interest rates for existing accounts.
By 10.28.07
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100 Sites to find user product reviews. [InsideCRM]
Track Accounts Online With Geezeo
By 10.25.07
Geezeo is a personal-finance management site that helps you keep track of all your accounts in one place. Like Mint.com, you give it all your account user names and passwords to use it. Also like Mint, Geezeo is a front-end system, but based on CashEdge instead of Yodlee. Unlike Mint, it has support for tracking your car loan, mortgage, and brokerage accounts (although they don’t interface yet my my fave, Vanguard), with plans to add support for student loans….
Validas Analyzes Your Cellphone Bill For Potential Savings
By 10.10.07
Validas is a new service that aims to help consumers save on their cellphone bills by analyzing their cellphone bills and providing suggestions about how they could adjust their plans and save money. To use it, you create an account, validate your email address, download your cellphone bill from your cell provider’s website, upload it to Validas for processing, then wait a few seconds for your report.
Amazon Investigates Safety Concerns Posted To Its Website?
By 10.5.07
I just wanted to let you guys know that Amazon has been tracking reviews posted for possible safety concerns. I had a rice cooker that decided to shock me several times, so I wrote an anonymous review back in January. Unexpectedly, a few weeks ago, I get an email from Amazon asking about the incident. Given the gap between the review and the email, I suspect this is a new program on their part. A copy of their email is below.
8 Bluetooth Headsets Reviewed
By 10.4.07
A professed non-early-adopter has reviewed 8 different Bluetooth headsets in a range of prices, scoring them on design, functionality, sound quality, and value. Her favorite from the group: the huge Plantronics Voyager 520, which sells for around $100. Coming in last was the $100 Samsung WEP410, which kept falling out of her ear.
Just How Good Is The New Amazon MP3 Store?
By 10.1.07
A reviewer at TidBITS gives a non-technical review of the new Amazon music store, a direct competitor to iTunes Music Store that Amazon launched last week. Their verdict? The download software could use work, but overall it’s “not too shabby.”
Mint.com Initial Review
By 10.1.07
Mint.com, a new free personal finance management site, is easy to get started, though we’re not sure we’re completely satisfied with where we end up.
A Review Of A Non-PR Infected Virgin America Flight
By 8.13.07
Jaunted decided to test the hype and fly Virgin America without the crack PR team. Result? 2 hour delay, no permanent terminal at JFK, but otherwise a pleasant flight.
